Captain Donald MacDonald (c. 1724–1760) was a military officer who fought for France, for Charles Edward Stuart in Scotland, and later for Great Britain in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

Life

MacDonald (sometimes spelt MacDonell) was the second son of Ranald MacDonald, 18th Chief of Clanranald. When still young he was sent to France where he received a commission in the Royal-Ecossais Regiment of the French army. In 1745 he was sent by King

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached ...

to assist Charles Edward Stuart in the

Jacobite rising , war = , image = Prince James Francis Edward Stuart by Louis Gabriel Blanchet.jpg , image_size = 150px , caption = James Francis Edward Stuart, Jacobite claimant between 1701 and 1766 , active ...

. MacDonald was wounded at the siege of Stirling Castle and imprisoned after the surrender of the Jacobite forces. As a French officer he was released from imprisonment and returned to France. MacDonald took advantage of the amnesty which was granted by Britain to Jacobite officers, and on 12 January 1757 was gazetted a captain in the regiment raised by Simon Fraser, the

78th Fraser Highlanders The 78th Regiment, (Highland) Regiment of Foot also known as the 78th Fraser Highlanders was a British infantry regiment of the line raised in Scotland in 1757, to fight in the Seven Years' War (also known as the French and Indian War in the ...

. In 1758 MacDonald sailed to Louisbourg which was then under siege as part of the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (175 ...

. He was wounded there on the night of 21 July. MacDonald participated in the subsequent siege of

. On the night of 13 September 1759 he was part of the

forlorn hope A forlorn hope is a band of soldiers or other combatants chosen to take the vanguard in a military operation, such as a suicidal assault through the kill zone of a defended position, or the first men to climb a scaling ladder against a defen ...

, the twenty-four volunteers leading the British attempt to climb the cliffs rising above the

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...

. It was MacDonald who responded in French to the challenge of the French guards, buying time for enough men to gather and overpower the post. This in turn allowed almost 5,000 British troops to climb the cliffs and mass on the

Plains of Abraham The Plains of Abraham (french: Plaines d'Abraham) is a historic area within the Battlefields Park in Quebec City, Quebec, anada. It was established on 17 March 1908. The land is the site of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, which took plac ...

. During the subsequent winter, MacDonald was given several independent commands, constantly harassing the French outposts surrounding Quebec. At the

Battle of Sainte-Foy The Battle of Sainte-Foy (french: Bataille de Sainte-Foy) sometimes called the Battle of Quebec (french: Bataille du Quebec), was fought on April 28, 1760 near the British-held town of Quebec in the French province of Canada during the Seven Y ...

, 28 April 1760, MacDonald commanded a company of volunteers on the left flank of the British army and was killed in the action. There is significant evidence that MacDonald was a harsh officer disliked by his own men as well as by his opponents. He received the nickname "Dòmhnaill Goran" (Donald the Sinister). There is some indication that his wounding at Louisbourg may have been an attempted "

fragging Fragging is the deliberate or attempted killing by a soldier of a fellow soldier, usually a superior. U.S. military personnel coined the word during the Vietnam War, when such killings were most often attempted with a fragmentation grenade, some ...

" by his own men. When he was killed at Sillery, his body was hacked to pieces.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macdonald, Donald Jacobite military personnel of the Jacobite rising of 1745 78th Fraser Highlanders officers British military personnel killed in the Seven Years' War 18th-century Scottish people Garde Écossaise officers British Army personnel of the French and Indian War 1720s births 1760 deaths